This news item got a bit lost over the weekend, which may have been by intent. However, this excerpt shows you just how deeply indebted (or how like-minded) President Obama is to the radical “Green” lobby in the United States.

In a New York Times interviewpublishedSaturday, President Obama came out foursquare against the Keystone XL pipeline, claiming that it would not create jobs. “Republicans have said that this would be a big jobs generator,” Obama said. “There is no evidence that that’s true.”

No, I haven’t suddenly started to wander around in leather sandals and a hemp shirt (at least, not yet). But based on a recent news report, I’m fairly certain that I’m more concerned about the welfare of the environment than the folks we usually see purported to be ‘saving the planet’.

Here, I’ll prove it.

—-

A few days ago near the Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic, a runaway train exploded. The train was loaded with crude oil from North Dakota, and the gigantic explosion is estimated to have killed at least 50 people.

But a larger point was missing from most of the headlines on this tragedy, namely: why was the oil being transported by train in the first place?

***Courtesy of THE RIO NORTE LINE***….We’ve posted numerous times here about the necessity of the Energy sector to be allowed to just do its job. Any Energy successes we’re experienced in the past 3 years have all been in SPITEof the current Administration, not because of it. This post from TRNL shows yet again how and why Energy is a key driver for our economic recovery here, and why the upcoming election is so vital to our country’s future.

Not to long ago, I posted my long expressed thesis that the energy sector is the key to the revival of the American economy. I wrote:

Over and over again, we have posted about how opening up energy exploration and production in the US could have an immediate “shock” effect on the economy because hydrocarbon based energy touches all strata of the economy and does so all at once. Cheaper fuel leads to cheaper production costs of products, immediately has an impact on personal income and strengthens the balance sheet of all companies by lowering overall costs to do business. It also immediately increases employment in the E&P (exploration and production) and EPIC (engineering, procurement, installation and construction) sectors of the oil patch. Good, high paying jobs that could be created at the cost of a signature.

In a major press event staged at the rim of the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona (an important swing state that year) Clinton and Vice President Al Gore announced their unilateral executive decision to designate a 1.9 million acre monument in Utah. The instant creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was a major victory for eco-activists, and a great loss to America’s energy portfolio. Portions of area are estimated to contain 62 billion tons of clean-burning, low-sulfur coal, between 3 to 5 billion barrels of oil, and 2 to 4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Members of Utah’s congressional delegation were livid, as they were informed of the decision just shortly before Clinton and Gore boarded Air Force One bound for the publicity stunt. Over the next four years Clinton and Gore would create over 4 million acres of national monuments, all known for their rich resources.

In 2000, the Clinton administration brazenly stretched the limits of the Antiquity Act further by establishing the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) at the behest of Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit (a man beloved by environmentalists for his dramatic DOI press events held in front of dams, in which he would brandish a sledgehammer as a part of his self-proclaimed “sledgehammer tour,” encouraging the destruction of America’s dams). The NLCS gave the president the power to deem a simple landscape as “treasured,” thus taking its resources off the books forever. In 2009, liberal majorities in Congress fashioned an official NLCS law, which President Obama eagerly signed. The legislation, part of an omnibus-spending bill, declared 27 million acres of “treasured landscapes.”

Now, as I disclose in my book Eco-Tyranny, President Obama has been caught in a plan to potentially declare 140-million acres of land treasured. I was one of the first to see a 21-page DOI draft document describing the scheme, which declares the acreage as, “components of larger landscapes, ecosystems, airsheds, and watersheds.” Note that all of the said components are purely subjective in nature.

For a visual depiction of just how much territorythe government now owns, I’ll include this from 2004:

Next up is the 4thinstallment of Tim Dunn’s 5-Minute Energy Blog, courtesy of Hugh Hewitt’s website. If you aren’t familiar with him, Tim Dunn is CEO of Crown Quest Operating (one of the top oil producers in Texas) and board member of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. And with a title like OIL-HATERS AND ENERGY-CRATS, this installment is in synch with the Sussman piece above, but with a slightly different perspective.

And, before anyone from the save-mother-earth-blah-blah-blah crowd says, “Hey, neither of those guys is a CLIMATOLOGIST, and the CLIMATOLOGISTS all say drilling is bad, etc, etc….. Why should we care what these authorssay?”, please check out one of my favorite articles from waaaay back in 2009, courtesy of the examiner.com:

What is a ‘Climatologist,’ precisely? Let me cut to the chase scene for you: It’s a job title, not an educational path. Translation: You, too, can be a Climatologist!

—-

I could go through every single paper presented as proof of Algore’s Earth View written by “climatologists” searching in vain for a “climatology” degree. Not there. The reason is because the very first such degree program in the worldtook students in just 2001.

***Courtesy of the blog QUIXOTES LAST STAND***
If you are not familiar with John Stossel, he is host of “Stossel” on the Fox Business Network. He’s also the author of “Give Me a Break” and of “Myth, Lies, and Downright Stupidity.”

The human brain is torn between simple intuition and the more complex hard work of figuring out the unintended consequences of any policy.
Who doesn’t like thinking about trees and greenery and happy animals? Who doesn’t want to see steps taken to protect those things, all else being equal? But all else is not equal. Civilization doesn’t work when central planners treat each tree as if its value is infinite.
Politicians specialize in convincing you that, with their help, you can have your cake and eat it, too. The idea of a new “green economy” that is both clean and rich with jobs became popular under Bill Clinton’s administration, thanks in large part to a compliant media and Vice President Al Gore. But anyone who understands economics knows that President Obama’s green jobs initiative is snake oil. Obama boasted that his $2.3…

You go to the gas station, put in your credit card, start to fill up the tank, and immediately look away from the pump. You talk with folks near you. Fiddle with your keys. Sing. Work out the lyrics from “Someone Saved My Life Tonight“. ANYTHING to keep from letting the cost of today’s tank of gas to actually soak into your consciousness!!

………OK, maybe not just like me….

But: I’ll bet you’d like to pay less for gas, or at least feel better about WHY you’re paying so much, right? Wouldn’t you like to hear about the current energy situation from an industry expert, rather than from a beat reporter or (worse) a news anchor, whose only energy experience is buying extra Rayovacs on their way home?

Hugh Hewitt** currently has a special guest-blog on his websiteright now which addresses ENERGY. The author is Tim Dunn, CEO of CrownQuest Operating, one of the top oil producers in Texas.

Energy is to the economy what food is to a human. You can’t get much more basic than the need to eat. Energy provides the ability for humans to accomplish many times more than their own physical efforts. It is energy that drives the machines that allows an American to be many times more productive than workers in non-industrial economies, from tractors to computers.

The US economy needs Calories to burn for the same reason the human body needs Calories to burn: to accomplish work and activity, to generate heat and support life. Impoverished people do not have sufficient Calories from food, so they suffer a lack of energy to work and might even die.

So what is the outlook for “food” for our economy? Are we headed for a subsistence diet of gruel and bread crust, or will we continue to eat beef and potatoes?

I would say “It depends.” It depends on a number of factors. But what I believe it depends on most is the political choices Americans make over the next dozen or so years. And the primary question is “Who decides?” Who will make energy choices for Americans?

If we decide as a country that policy experts in Washington DC should make decisions about energy, then I predict the bureaucracy economy in DC will be very fat and powerful, and the rest of the economy will get very thin and weak. On the other hand, if we are able to retain our heritage of self-governance, and allow individual Americans to make their own choices in a free marketplace of ideas, businesses and consumer choices, then I think we will have a fit and prosperous economy for the indefinite future.

And, of course, the bureaucrat economy will have to go on a diet.

————————————

We are an advanced culture primarily because of energy. If you’re even a little curious about our country’s energy future, be sure to read all of his posts:

**Bias Note: My wife and I have both been big Hugh Hewittfans for years now.

Host of a VERY entertaining radio show from California, Hewitt is also a practicing lawyer, a law professor at Chapman University, and a rabid Cleveland Browns fan (I try to not hold that last one against him). He also worked for almost 6 years in the Reagan administration.